Floor covering material and coating therefor



April 11, 1939.

FLOOR COVERING MATERIAL AND COATING THEREFOR Original Filed Feb. 18, 1933 [infirqynafed Felt Becki/2y Pain? INVENTOR.

ADOEEQT Houvss Pom.

ATTORNEY.

R. H. POHL 12,153,723

Patented Apr.

UNIT This invention relates to facturing floor coverings PATENT OFFICE FLooa oovnnme MATERIAL AND oomrmc. mnsroa Robert H. Pohl,

Blabon Corporation, porationof Delaware Original application February this application Novem- 657350. Divided and her 6, 1936, Serial No.

I 11 Claims.

the art of manumade with a felt base impregnated with a saturating compound. This type of floor covering is 5 as felt base floor covering.

known in the industry More particularly,

the invention relates to a coated felt base material, the coating of colloid anda dried uid, which remains ing, and to a which includes a dried solid soft material, plastic or liqsoft upon drying of the coatpaint adapted to be used as a backing paint on such felt In general, the backing this invention have consisted of suitable pigbase goods.

paints used prior to ments with a hinder or vehicle composed of organic compounds or mixtures thereof, such as rosins, drying oils, casein, proteins, gums, resins and/or waxes, and solvents. In so far various inflammable organic as these materials are combustible or inflammable, the covering is, therefurther result that and adheres to the it is rolled.

fire hazard either during or after the processing, or use of organic solvents tends rant, and thereby to coating material, with oration in the coating, and frequently with both. Furthermore, the

to soften the satucause it to mingle with the resulting stain or discolthe the coating becomes sticky supporting rolls during ourthe material when The accompanying drawing shows in perspective a portion of a the felt and the surface sheet broken away to expose coatings. The felted sheet material is impregnated with a hot saturant, usually an a sphaltic or bituminous material. A common method of saturating the sheet material is to pass the felt through a tank fllled with the hot saturant 97nd allowing the felt to contact the hot saturant for a specified time and at a predetermined felt is then passed temperature. The saturated through a coater at which time the backing and the surface paint are applied to the surfaces of the sheeted felt. The coated and impregnated felt are run into a drier and allowed to dry. Other methods of saturating and coating are well known and recognized in the industry but, since the method invention, the claims does not form a part of my shall not be construed as limited to a specific disclosure of any particular procedure disclosed According to the in the specification. present invention, I propose to use water vehicle paints which, being immisc'ible with the saturant, have no tendency to soften or mingle with the saturant, and, on the contrary, form a pe the saturated felt.

rfect seal over the surface of The compositions which we Newark, N. J assignor to Sloane- Philadelphia, Pa., a cor- 1s, 1933, Serial No.

' shown by our experiments, are not satisfactory because of theircharacteristic of shrinking upon drying, which causes the sheet to curl, and thereby results in such difficulties during the further treatment of the sheet that such paints would be impracticable. I have discovered, however, that it is possible to produce a modified paint of this type which not only is satisfactory for use as a backing paint, but is actually superior to other compositions commonly used for the purpose. Among other advantages of such paints, they are cheaper, they are impervious to the saturant so that there lsno tendency to discolor or become sticky, they are non-adhesive under all conditions, so that they do not adhere to the face of the goods when rolled, if the proportion of mineral pigmentsis high, and particularly if a silicate binder is used, they are fire-resistant, and are not softened or decomposed with heat, they are flexible, and they may be dried rapidly.

It is common practice with manufactures of felt base goods to pass the felt first through a bath of hot saturant, then through a coater and drier in which the backing and/or face paint is plant space required for these operations important factor in the overhead cost of manufacturing goods of this type, and there has been a consistent effort to develop a coating material which could be dried in a shorter time and without external heating, so as' to reduce the cost of these operations.

It is an important advantage of the present invention that the coating materials herein disclosed may be applied directly to the saturated sheet while still hot from the saturating bath, and that the coating compositions, those containing become apparently dry and non-adhesive while retaining from to of the vehicle. Thus the coating material serves to reduce the time, space, and heat required for drying the coatingj 1 for such purposes,

particularly The following may be given as an example of a backing paint which may be used according to my invention:

' Parts by weight Pigment and fillers 1400 Silicate solution 800 Water 300. Rubber latex 120 The pigment may consist, for example, of 250 understood that variations from the particular composition may be made within the scope of.

our invention. Other soluble silicates may also be used, particularly potassium silicate.

The rubber is preferably added in the form of latex, as already suggested above, this being the natural milk of the rubber tree, hevea, containing about 38%- rubber, and commonly containing small amounts of protective colloids or other materials which serve to stabilize the latex against coagulation. Artificial dispersions of rubber may also be used in place of the natural latex, or concentrated latex may be used containing a higher percentage of rubber, in which case a smaller proportion will be used than is specified in the above formula.

The hardness and resistance to alkali and water may be increased by the addition of small amounts, e. g., less than 10% of metallic oxide, such as zinc oxide, lead oxide, etc., and the coating may be further hardened after drying, and its resistance to water and aqueous solutions increased by passing it through a bath or spray of an aqueous solution of ammonium sulphate, ammonium chloride, or other materials having a similar action.

The ingredients may be mixed in any suitable manner, as will be apparent to those skilled in the art. For example, the sodium silicate solution may be thinned with water to the desired viscosity or degree of dilution, after which the finely divided pigment or fillers are incorporated and suspended therein by the used an agitator, mixer, grinding mill, pebble mill, ball mill, or other suitable device, and preferably the rubber is added last by stirring into the composition without violent agitation.

This coating may be applied to the felt base goods by spraying or flowing it upon the surface of the saturated felt, and evening the resulting film by means of a doctor blade, or other suitable device, or it may be applied by various other means familiar to those skilled in the art.

Instead of rubber, oils maybe used as the soft material for suppressing shrinking tendencies of the coating. Thus, satisfactory coating may be pigments, 15% of soluble silicate solids, and 5% of rosin oil, with sufilcient water to give the necessary viscosity. The oil in ods commonly used for emulsifying oils.

The rosin oil in this case serves the same function as the rubber in the first example given above, namely to prevent contraction of the film, and to render the coating more permanently flexible, water-resistant and stable. Although Oxide pigment this case is emulsified in the aqueous vehicle by any of the meth-' I have specified rosin oil as a particularly satisfactory oil for the purpose, I could use anything from mineral oil to the best of drying oils. The amount of oil used in this way should, of course, be sufficiently small to become enmeshed in the silicate or other binder, so that it will not dissolve the saturant or render the coating sticky.

This coating, if mixed with only enough water to give the necessary viscosity for satisfac-' tory working, will set to an apparently dry film while retaining to of its water. It may be applied, for example, to the sheet which is still hot from the saturant, e. g., at a temperature in excess of 250 F., and in this manner we have obtained drying times of 26 seconds, or less.

Another coating which has proven very satisfactory is one consisting of Parts by weight Pennsylvania ochre 125 15 Water -40 Latex 46-73 Casein-silicate solution (made by mixing together 500 parts of water, 2 parts of ammonia, 10 parts of borax, 80 parts of casein, and 92 parts of sodium silicate Na2O.3.36SiO2) 37-59 The above formula may also be used substituting approximately 35 par-ts of casein for the sodium silicate, but in that case is less fireresistant, not quite so fastdrying, and otherwise less advantageous than with the formula as specified.

Although in the above I have particularly described several embodiments of my invention, these are given for the purpose of illustration and explanation, and are not to be taken as limiting. 0n the contrary, numerous changes and modifications may be made without departing from the scope of my invention.

This is a divisional application of application Serial No. 657,350, filed February 18, 1933, now issued as Patent No. 2,085,602.

I claim:

1. A fioor covering orlike sheet material comprising a felt base impregnated with a bituminous material and an exposed flexible paint coatingon the back thereof which is fire-resistant, nonadhesive to other surfaces, even tacky oil paints, and resists diffusion of bituminous impregnating material, and which comprises an alkali silicate binder, inorganic pigments and a material chosen from the group consisting of rosin oil and rubber.

2. A floor covering, or like material, comprising a felt base, a saturant carried by the felt base, and a paint coating on the back thereof which is flexible, non-adhesive, and is free from stresses which would objectionably curl the sheet material, the said coating comprising alkali silicate, inorganic pigments, and a material chosen from the group consisting of rosin oil and rubber adapted to soften and prevent objectionable shrinkage of the coating.

3. A sheet material as defined in claim 2, in which the material in the coating adapted to prevent shrinkage thereof is rubber latex.

4. A floor covering material as defined in claim 2, in which the coating includes an organic adhesive.

5. A floor covering material as defined in claim 2, in which the coating includes casein.

6. A floor covering, or like sheet material, comprising a felt base impregnated with a bituminous material, and a surface coating comprising approximately 20% of binder and approximately 80% of pigments, said binder comprising an alkali silicate and an organic material chosen from the group consisting of rosin oil and rubber adapted to increase the flexibility of said coating, and said coating being substantially free from stresses which would curl the sheet material.

7. A sheet material as defined in claim 6, in which the binder comprises sodium silicate, and rubber latex serves to increase the flexibility of the coating.

8. A sheet material as defined in claim 6, in which the binder comprises sodium silicate and casein.

9. A floor covering, or -like sheet material, comprising a felt base impregnated with bituminous material, and a surfacecoating comprising approximately 15% alkali silicate, 80% pigments, and 5% rosin oil which serves to sup press the tendency of the coating to curl the sheet material by shrinkage.

10. The method of making a felt base material for floor coverings and the like which comprises saturatlng a fibrous felt in a bath of hot bituminous material, coating the material while hot from the saturated bath with an aqueous paint comprising pigments and soluble silicate and a material chosen from the group consisting of rosin oil and rubber adapted to remain soft upon drying with the coating, and thereby to suppress tendency to excessive shrinkage, and exposing the coated material to a drying atmosphere, whereby the water of said paint is quickly evaporated, and the bituminous material chilled by heat exchange therebetween.

11. The method of making a felt base material as described in claim 10, in which the soft material is rubber latex.

ROBERT H. POI-IL. 

